Ocular surgeries are performed frequently by ophthalmologists, with special care and attention to the eye being required before, during, and after surgery. A possible complication of all intraocular surgeries is endophthalmitis, which is inflammation of the internal coats of the eye because of infection. Endophthalmitis is a serious condition that can cause blindness. Once present, a vitreoretinal specialist will usually provide an intravitreal injection of antibiotics, which may include vancomycin and ceftazidime. However, depending upon how long the eye was infected, the patient may still experience eye pain and require further surgeries. Therefore, avoiding endophthalmitis complications is preferable, with ophthalmologists using a variety of methods to lower the risk of infection.
To prevent endophthalmitis, the current standard of care includes using eye drops before and after the surgery. The eye drops are typically a combination of antibiotics, steroids, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Normally, the drops are used 3-4 times per day for up to one month. This poses several problems including, but not limited to, potential non-compliance with the drop schedule, difficulty instilling the drops due to things like arthritis and other common physical ailments found in elderly patients, the high cost of the prescription eye drops, losing or misplacing the eye drops, and others.
Due to the problems present with eye drops, other methods have been introduced. One current method is to inject a compounded formulation (e.g., triamcinolone acetonide and moxifloxacin hydrochloride) into the posterior segment of the eye during surgery. However, properly injecting the formulation into the posterior portion of the eye is not only difficult, but increases the risk of other complications, such as zonular dehiscence, posterior pressure, and retinal toxicity or detachment, among others. For these reasons, post-operative eye drops have remained the standard.
In an effort to overcome these problems, the inventor disclosed, in the earlier parent application, an antibiotic solution and method of injecting the solution into the anterior portion of the eye. While this method has proven effective, additional problems became apparent. For example, both the aqueous humor and the antibiotic solutions are clear fluids. As a result, it can be difficult to determine how much of the antibiotic solution has entered the eye and whether it has been injected into the correct areas. Further, it is impossible to determine whether any of the antibiotic fluid has leaked from the eye. Due to the above problems, it is difficult to ensure accurate dosing, which means that surgeons are less likely to use the method. Accordingly, there remains a need for an antibiotic solution and method of delivery that reduces the risk of endophthalmitis in patients, eliminates patient error and cost to patient, that does not require posterior injections into the eye, and that allows a surgeon to quickly and easily determine that: 1) the antibiotic solution has penetrated the eye in the correct area; and 2) the antibiotic solution has not leaked from the eye. The present disclosure seeks to solve these and other problems.